We are the official news source of Your Smokies in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. In the Smokies you can find peace and solitude in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or excitement in Pigeon Forge and Asheville. Your Smokies has the best Smokies News and Information.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Rain and fog in the Great Smoky Mountains national park today doesn't mean you cant have any fun - especially since there will be free Appalachian music being played all day long for the "Music of the Mountains" program at the Sugarlands visitor center today.

Starting at 10 am today you can enjoy the fiddling, ballads, jigs, and reels performed by the Lost Mill String Band, Tony Thomas, Dr. Ted Olson, Boogertown Gap, the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers and Roger Howell and the Bailey Mountain Ramblers will finish the day at around 5 pm.

Tonight starting at 6:30 pm you can join Jimbo Whaley and Friends who will be performing in the Gatlinburg Convention centers W L Mills Conference Center. Tickets at the door will be $25 each.

The national park service uses controlled fires and a rotated mowing schedule to keep the fields and meadows in Cades Cove clear of new growths of trees so that its appearance is more like that what the White settlers of the 1800's tuned the Cove into.

Prescribed fires are also used in the Great Smoky Mountains national park to protect the abundant biodiversity by simulating the effect natural wildfires have to allow greater competition between plants.

Prescribed burns in the Great Smoky Mountains national park also used to reduce dead brush and other natural fuels which can allow what should be a controllable wildfire to get out of hand.

The prescribed burn today should not significantly hamper your experience if you are visiting Cades Cove today or on any other day that the burns in the Cove are being executed.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Concealed, loaded weapons are no longer allowed in any of the nations National Parks since U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kennedy granted a temporary injunction late Thursday restoring rules that ban loaded, concealed firearms in national parks such as the Great Smoky Mountains.

The court ruling stated that the Bush administration failed to follow federal environmental laws and the safety of park visitors and their experience would be compromised by allowing guns into any of our national parks.

I wish to make clear that I own guns and have done so for more than 30 years but I vehemently appose allowing guns into parks such as the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

Very simply the environment of our national parks such as the Great Smoky Mountains national park does not need armed citizens running around using guns as "protection" against other park visitors or the natural inhabitants.

An argument however can be made that being armed in is some wildlife refuges where there is a dense population of Polar Bear may be of some benefit to visitors. There is no logical need for an across the board allowance of loaded weapons in our nations national parks, wildlife refuges and historical landmarks.

The United States Government has until April 20th to state its "intended course of action" regarding this ruling. If the government is listening to those who work in and around the park and the majority of those who volunteer or visit the park, loaded guns other than those carried by enforcement personnel would never be allowed back into the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

Less than 2 weeks ago the Great Smoky Mountains were still seeing snow falling on the lower elevations as seen by the snow and ice in the picture of a daffodil in Cades Cove but now the daily highs are generally in the 50s and 60s and continue to climb although it is not impossible to get snow in the Smokies as late as May.

Since weather in the Smokies is unpredictable, it is still possible to have road closures from snow and ice for the next 2 months. Strong windstorms can close roads due to trees being knocked down year round.

Spring is around the corner and the Great Smoky Mountains national park has just opened most of the roads that were closed for the winter. If winter conditions occur this roads may temporarily close again.

The only remaining roads in the GSMNP that are still closed are:

Balsam Mountain in Balsam Mountain area of North Carolina Closed October 31st, 2008 will reopen May 8th 2009

Clingmans Dome Road off Newfound Gap Road in North Carolina closed November 30th, 2008 will reopen in April 1st 2009

Heintooga Ridge Road in Balsam Mountain area of North Carolina closed October 31st, 2008 will reopen May 8th 2009

Parson Branch Road in Cades Cove area of Tennessee closed November 16th, 2008 will reopen in Late Spring 2009

Parson Branch was excepted to be open today but due to extensive damage form winter storms will remain closed until some time late spring or early summer.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Great Smoky Mountains national park is about to start repaving a stretch of just under 7 miles of the GSMNP Newfound Gap road from the Cherokee North Carolina entrance area north to the Collins Creek Picnic Area.

This 18 month long project will start March 16th and it will cause periodic lane closures until it has been completed some time in September of 2010. If the last repaving work performed on Newfound Gap Road is any indication of how this project will go, serious traffic interruptions especially during peak visitation will not be a problem. Park directives to the contractor APAC Atlantic Inc dictate that single lane closures can not cause more than a 10 minute delay any single work site.

While Newfound Gap Road is not nearly in as bad a shape as the soon to be repaved Cades Cove Loop Road, this section of US 441 has not been repaved since 1983. The extensive work will include removal of the old pavement and widening and realignment of the road at the entrance to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center which will also undergo construction as the new Oconaluftee Visitor Center will be built.

March 16 2009 - June 15 2009 during the week lane-closures can take place around the clock but will not be allowed between 8 am - 10 pm on weekends*, holidays, or during April 10 through April 19 (Easter Week).

*Weekends are defined as noon on Friday through 8 am on Monday

June 15, 2009 - August 15, 2009 Between 8 am to 9 pm no closures will be permitted

Yesterday's picturesque snow is wreaking havoc on all of the roads in the Great Smoky Mountains national park causing the national park service to close most major roads in and around the GSMNP.

The 3 major arteries running through the park: Newfound Gap Road US 441 connecting Cherokee North Carolina with Gatlinburg Tennessee, Laurel Creek Road connecting the Townsend Wye with Cades Cove and Little River Road connecting the Gatlinburg/Sugarlands area with the Townsend Wye are all closed due to dangerous ice and snow.

Entrance roads to some sections of the Great Smoky Mountains national park are also closed due to ice and snow: Wears Cove Road, Cherokee Orchard Road in Roaring Fork outside Gatlinburg, Greenbrier entrance road by Pittman center, the Cosby entrance road and the Cataloochee entrance road.

Road conditions around the Great Smoky Mountains national park are also treacherous so the following roads are also closed due to ice and snow: Old route 284 from Deep Creek to Cataloochee NC, the Foothills Parkway East from I-40 to 321 Cosby, and the Gatlinburg Bypass section of the Spur - Foothills Parkway.